Roger E. Ball spent years as a successful businessman. Yet when family and friends speak of him, their recollections emphasize his curiosity, affection for conversation and ability to discuss almost everything.
“If there was a subject Roger couldn’t discuss, I never found out what it was,” said Clark Wagner, who with Mr. Ball was a member of the Literary Club of Chicago. “He was an exceptional writer and an animated conversationalist, interested in all subjects, always searching for new things to think and talk about.”
Mr. Ball, 91, a longtime Chicago resident and founder of the former management consulting firm Roger Ball & Associates, died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia Friday, Jan. 30, in a Minneapolis hospital.
The son of an Army officer stationed around the world, Mr. Ball spent his childhood in countries such as China, the Philippines and Panama, developing an inquisitive nature and appreciation for travel.
When his father was discharged, the family returned to Madison, Wis., where Mr. Ball had been born. He worked for several management-consulting firms, then during World War II served in the Navy as a management consultant for the Army. After the war, he worked with the Chicago management consulting firm Booz Allen & Fry, where he met his wife, Virginia.
In 1958, he opened his own company and through the years had major corporate clients throughout the world. He closed the firm in 1982, the year his wife died.
“He had a successful career. But when I think of him, it is of his interest in the arts and the world of ideas,” said his daughter Lorrie Holmgren. “He loved the world of ideas, the thinking and questioning and reflecting on ideas and thoughts.”
In 1988, such passion led him to join the Literary Club, in which members meet weekly to read papers they have researched and written on subjects of interest to them. Each year the club chooses one paper to publish. Mr. Ball had three of his papers published by the club.
“Roger had a strong, very positive personality; a man with an amazing mind who wrote some extraordinary papers,” said Pamela Bublitz-Snider, also a Literary Club member.
A pianist as a child, he turned to the flute as he grew older. His daughter said he loved music and theater and had climbed the Matterhorn. He traveled the world, including a camping trip he and his wife took that stretched through Europe as they drove their van from one country to the next.
He also was a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, the Cliff Dwellers and the Adventurers Club of Chicago.
Other survivors include his son, R. Dennis; a daughter, Katharine Robinson; and seven grandchildren.
Services will be held Saturday in Minneapolis.
